Casters, Girls, and Bounty Heads Episode 6
by Chris Maldonado
Summary: CGBH episode 6


Episode 6: Girls and grease monkeys…

Oz lay in a hammock set up in the living room and stared out the observation window. They hadn't done anything in the last few weeks except travel from port to port seeing the sights. It was all well and good, but for Oz it was becoming tiresome. There's gotta be something we can do for action, he thought. They hadn't gone after any more bounty heads either for a couple of reasons. One reason was that they had enough money to still last them awhile. The other reason was that lately all the bounties were only four figure bounties. Which was chump change for him and Ryoko. For him and his crew five figures earned a glance, six figures a little investigation and anything above that usually led to actual chases. He continued to think of things that would occupy his time, his jet always needed maintenance checks and cleaning certain engine components would give them a longer life-span. But Oz had been doing that for the last few days, so that was out. They would be docking at the next port before the day was out and Oz suddenly thought that a party would be a good way to blow off pent-up energy. "Let's hit the clubs tonight gals whatta say?"

Ryoko was lounging on the couch watching TV, "I'm in." She replied.

"Yeah!" was Ed's only response.

At the club…

Oz looked around at the club, "Nice place."

"Fun!" Ed yelled and ran off to join a crowd of dancers, holding her arms out like an airplane as she ran.

Ryoko grabbed Oz by the arm, "Come on, lets dance," Ryoko said, "They're playin my favorite Alice Deejay song."

"Fine," Oz willingly complied.

They danced and listened to the song. Ryoko mouthed the Lyrics as she danced with Oz.

"You and me, we have an opportunity, and we could make it something really good. But you, you think I'm not that kinda girl; I'm here to tell you baby I know how to rock your world…"

Oz looked at her and smiled, thinking about how much the song relates to Ryoko. She was a strong and independent woman, and a very good-looking one at that. Sometimes he honestly wondered why she hung around him. Don't ask, don't complain, he told himself, and kept on dancing.

Meanwhile as this was going on Ed was enjoying her time at the club, the song had switched to something much more up-tempo. Everyone was dancing to "Never gonna come back down" from BT. Ed was really starting to enjoy herself when someone caught her eye. She looked and saw a boy about her height with dirty-blond hair that was tied in a ponytail, he was wearing a beige jacket and cargo pants, and he was looking at Ed. As she danced she winked at him and went back to the song. She noticed that he blushed and quickly went back to trying to enjoy the song.

Ryoko happened to catch all this, "How cute," she said.

"What?" Oz asked.

"Ed's makin' with the pretty eyes at some guy." Ryoko answered.

"Well we did come here to have a good time." And Oz decided that the matter deserved no further attention.

Jim Hawking finally decided that he would talk to the red-haired girl. She's really cute, he thought. He decided that the worst that would happen is that she wouldn't be interested, and since Jim came not expecting any action, rejection would still be one-up from his expectations. "Hey, I'm Jim Hawking." He introduced himself. At 18 he had only gone out on a few dates and so was fairly new in that area.

"Hiya, Edward is Edward!"

"Ed huh? That's not a name you hear for a girl very often."

Ed simply looked at him and smiled.

Oz looked on as they danced, "Looks like lover boy is makin' his move," he told Ryoko.

"Oh yeah? Well lets see if he's a hit or miss." She saw this as a possible source of entertainment.

"You're cruel," Oz said.

Ryoko did nothing more but grin and wink in response to that.

As they were dancing Oz noticed someone. His face looked familiar, but he wasn't sure from where. He dismissed it when he suddenly remembered where he's seen that man before. Realizing that he pulled out his techbrick and turned it on. "Don't leave home without it," he told Ryoko. He accessed the internet and went the bounty database, then he aimed the built-in camera at the guy and had his image cross-referenced with the image database.

"Did you find someone?" Ryoko asked as she saw Oz waiting for something, staring at the screen of his techbrick.

"I think I saw that guy on the database last time I was checking it for new post-ups." The search suddenly ended with a match, "Bingo," Oz announced. He held up the screen to Ryoko's face and showed her how much he was worth: $150,000.

"Hmm, looks like he's worth a little wad isn't he?"

"Yeah, I say we get him." Oz declared.

"Why?" Ryoko protested, "It's not like we don't have any money, and we're having a good time they're playin' good songs here."

Oz looked at her and smiled, "Business before pleasure beautiful, besides he's right there if we let him go it's like burning money."

Ryoko sighed, "Fine I'll get him, and after we cash him in we get back to the party okay?"

"Done." Oz had no problem with that deal.

Ryoko teleported behind the man, he had long black hair that was tied back. He was also slim and somewhat tall. As he was dancing Ryoko popped up behind him. "Why hello there my little $150,000 bag of money." The man then suddenly spun around and punched Ryoko in the face.

The man saw her dazed expression, "See ya," and he started to sprint.

Jim was hitting it off with Ed when he saw some girl with long silver hair get punched by some guy with long black hair. Seeing him run off he pulled his fist back and punched him in the nose just as he was running past him.

Oz saw him hit Ryoko and that was something you don't do under any circumstances. Missiles, bullets, caster shells, laser beams, those were all things Ryoko could put up with, but a punch to the face, especially a sucker-punch, was unacceptable. Oz knew that about Ryoko. This guy didn't and he was going to find out the hard way why it's a bad idea. Another thing wrong with it was that Oz didn't tolerate anyone hitting his main squeeze. That for Oz, was unacceptable. He was quickly right next to the man when he grabbed by the shoulder and swung him around. The guy was still reeling from Jim's punch and when he was swung around by Oz he wasn't sure what was going on, then he found out with a clean right hook.

Ryoko flew up to him, still rubbing her face. She wasn't impervious to pain. Although she had the ability to make it appear that way with her powers. She could build up a powerful field of energy around her and make it look like she was bullet proof, but she wasn't it just looked that way. And since she wasn't expecting to be punched she saw no need to use her powers, so now she had to deal with the pain of a sore cheekbone. Sucker punches had a zero-tolerance policy in Ryoko's book, and he was going to pay for violating it. "You hit me you bastard!" Ryoko put her fist back and gave him an uppercut that sent him flying back. The man lied on the floor bloody and dazed Ryoko looked down at him, "Touch me again and it won't just be a love tap!"

Oz picked up and cuffed their bounty, "$150,000, easy breezy."

"Whatever." Ryoko was still furious at the fact that she was hit.

Oz pulled at the arm of their catch, "Well let's get this guy outta here so we can get back to partying."

As they were about to leave Jim decided to be very bold, "Wait!" He shouted.

Oz and Ryoko both looked at him. "What?" They asked mutually.

Being acknowledged, Jim wasn't sure where to go from there. "Ummm, well…" He wasn't sure how to word it so decided to just flat out ask, "Can I join you guys?"

"What?" Oz and Ryoko asked again simultaneously.

"You guys are bounty hunters, and bounty hunters travel, and I was wondering if I could…travel with you guys." Jim was stumbling with his words.

Ryoko and Oz looked at each other in uncertainty.

"Well…" Ryoko said.

"Ummm…" Oz thought.

"Okay!" Ed shouted.

"You're with these guys Ed?" Jim was surprised.

Ed nodded and grinned.

"Hey wait a minute!" Ryoko and Oz shouted.

"Wait!" Jim pleaded, "Just hear me out on why you should let me tag along, please?"

"Fine," Oz relented.

Jim began pleading his case, "Well, for one I kinda helped catch this guy." He went on, "For another thing I'm a good mechanic, I can fix just about anything. Another thing, I'm good with electronics, anything that has wires I can reconfigure them and repair them, and I'm also good with computers. And I know how to do other repairs, like things that you might need done on a jet, car, spacecraft, motorcycle." Jim stopped there since that was all he could think of for the moment, then he realized further incentive for them to want to hire him, "OH! And you don't have to pay me, just let me go with you guys, gimme somewhere to stay and feed me, that's it!"

Oz thought it over. We could use a mechanic, he thought. And if I do decide to pay him I don't have to pay him much, we have the room for him, and it would save me time in repairs if I had an extra hand. "Alright," Oz agreed, "But if I don't like your work I'm dumping you off at the nearest port."

"Deal!" Jim said excitedly.

"Looks like this is becoming a habit," Ryoko said aloud, then she realized something and leaned towards Ed, "Hey Ed isn't he the guy you were dancing with?"

Ed looked over at Ryoko, "Yeah," she said nonchalantly.

Ryoko grinned at that answer and nudged Ed, "The plot thickens."

Ed simply winked and smiled.

The things a man does for a girl...

To be continued…


End file.
